Butterbeer Corks and their Uses
by Ingenious
Summary: People aren't always what you first make them out to be. A snapshot of a defining moment in Luna Lovegood's life.


Hello! I'm back. I've decided to write a short story/one shot to get back into the throws of things. Anyway hope you enjoy!

P.S. None of this is mine. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and the Moomins to Tove Jansson.

**Butterbeer Corks and Their Uses**

"_Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of Butterbeer corks..."_

Luna Lovegood was an easy going child with her parent's best characteristics. She had her mother's intelligence and probably, her magical aptitude. While from her father, she had received his blonde mop and straight forward manner.

She also, like any other magical child, could not believe how slowly the years leading up to her 11th birthday were going. Aged 9, she felt like her life was one constant Christmas Eve!

Today, however, she did not mind the slow pace that the day seemed to be progressing with. Last night her parents had thrown another of their infamous parties. As is customary with the morning following a party, her parents still lay in their bed. This provided Luna with free reign of the house, garden and kitchen.

With her stomach full of Sugar Quills (a sufficient breakfast food, in her opinion) she roamed the garden on this beautiful, sunny morning. Peering at her watch she noted that it was 2.00pm, possibly a new record for her parents. How they could still be in bed fascinated Luna, who had been up from 8.00am. Another half an hour later and Luna decided it was time for a lunch of Chocolate Frogs.

Wending her way through the long grass at the end of the garden, affectionately referred to as "Luna's swamp". This was for the simple reason that Luna, having had a bout of over active imagination, was positive that "Moomins" were living in that section of grass. She had pleaded with her father to not cut the grass at that end of the garden. Her mother had eventually intervened on her behalf and so, that section of garden was now uncanny in its resemblance to a swamp.

She had just reached the maintained part of the garden, when an immense noise issued from the house. The force of it so great, that, Luna was knocked back onto her rear. When the ringing in her ears subsided she heard nothing but silence, a fact that frightened beyond her wits.

Luna wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there on her rump, when the back door to the house opened. Her Aunty Phillipa's head appeared, eyes frantically sweeping across the garden until they came to a rest upon Luna.

"Luna, sweetheart, are you alright?" Called her aunt.

Luna could only nod. Suddenly, though, her voice came back to her. "What was that noise?"

Her aunt looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Well...um...Your Mummy has had a little bit of an accident, that was the noise you heard, so, your Daddy has had to take her to the hospital and I'm here to look after you."

One thing stuck out in Luna's curious mind. "What kind of accident?"

Her Aunt cringed as though she had not expected the question. "Well, Mummy was finishing off a new spell and we think something went wrong."

"Oh." Said Luna simply. "Well, I was just going to go and get some lunch. Race you!" The minute the words had left her lips she had taken off at a sprint towards the house.

In the excitement of winning an impromptu race she ignored, or didn't hear, the cry of, "Luna, NO WAIT!" From her Aunt.

Luna pulled open the door leading to the utility room. On a normal day, there was a wall separating this room from her Mother's "Laboratory", but this wasn't a normal day. There was a lot of rubble that vaguely resembled something that may have been a wall in a previous life. There was also something splattered, randomly, over the remaining walls and intact surfaces. Something that smelt terribly familiar. Something that looked horribly out of place.

Luna was once again frozen and once again, her aunt interrupted her terror.

"Luna, poppet, come on... through to the kitchen and we'll fix up lunch." She steered Luna, forcefully through the door that stood between normality (the kitchen) and this abomination.

As her Aunt bustled about the kitchen, trying, desperately to regain some control of the situation, Luna simply stared blankly at the workbench in front of her. Her Aunt, gently, moved her to the side to retrieve some contraption from the drawer that Luna had been standing in front of.

A clanking sound from beside her feet drew Luna's attention downwards. She realised that the sound had come from the recycling crate her mother insisted on keeping. She had, one day, discovered this muggle activity and thought it was a great idea. As it was, friends and relatives scoffed at her when she mentioned recycling, but she still insisted on placing every one of her used Butterbeer bottles in the crate.

She would take them to the tip tomorrow, Luna presumed. As usual, however, she had forgotten to take the corks out. The tip manager would shout at her again and yet another fight would ensue. Luna sighed and bent down to remove the offending corks. As she worked an idea came to her, a brilliant idea. What if she, Luna, was to make a necklace from the leftover corks, for her mother. It would make her feel better while she was in hospital, presents, often, had that effect on one.

Luna settled herself with a needle, thread and the corks and set to work creating the necklace. Working the needle through each of the corks was hard work but Luna was nothing, if not a determined little girl. She remembered the time her father had decided that they should learn to survive without wands and magic, just in case he had said. He had started with the simple enough task of making a compass. The "compass incident" had ended when, in a fit of rage, he had incinerated all the compass making equipment (cork, needle, magnet and so on). Onlookers had all agreed that when he had burned the bowl of water, to float the cork, it had been a rather nifty bit of magic.

Phillipa tried to convince Luna to eat something but Luna insisted that she would eat when the necklace was finished.

Luna had just pulled the needle through the last cork when the kitchen fire blazed and her father stepped out of it.

"Daddy!" she squealed, as she jumped from her seat to hug her father.

She missed the look that passed from her father to his sister, just as she missed the softly moaned "No!" from her aunty and the pain in her father's eyes. She missed all this as she happily babbled about the present she had made for her mother. She was so happy when she was steered towards the fire and heard the words "St. Mungo's". She was going to give her mother her present.


End file.
